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PRESS RELEASE - To cause infection, viruses must enter the cells of their hosts. Viruses thus sport proteins on their membrane surfaces that allow their membranes to fuse with those of host cells. In collaboration with researchers at Cornell University in the US, INRAE researchers characterised a key surface protein found in SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. The group discovered that SARS-CoV-2 possesses a surface protein that is distinct from the surface proteins of other closely related coronaviruses. This difference in surface proteins might have played an important role in the evolution and emergence of SARS-CoV-2. These findings were recently published in the Journal of Molecular Biology.

As the COVID-19 epidemic spreads throughout the world, the research community is mobilising its forces. In the Paris region, INRAE researchers Jean-François Eléouët and Bernard Delmas and their teams in the Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit (VIM) are hard at work: their aim is to accelerate their knowledge, prevent and cure the disease; each new goal corresponds to a new research project.

Developed in the context of the European SAPHIR project, a vaccine against bovine respiratory syncytial virus, effective after one dose, has proved its efficacy in young cattle. An associated DIVA test reinforces the usefulness of this vaccine.